How to Hide Insta­gram Sto­ry from Every­one Except One Person

20 Nov 2019

Stories are the heart and soul of Instagram. We love sharing our daily updates on stories. However, had it not been for the privacy settings offered by Instagram, one would be wary of sharing content on it. We usually hide the Instagram story from one or two people and keep it open for the rest. What if we want to reverse the situation? That is hide story from everyone except one person.

There are many reasons to do it. For instance, I use it to test various Instagram story features. Similarly, someone might want to check if their crush is viewing their stories or not. You can also fool your friends with this trick by giving them the impression that you have shared the story with everyone.

In case you are wondering how to show your story to one person only, there are two methods to do so. Let’s check them out.

Method 1: Using Hide Story Option

The first method involves the usual process of hiding stories from others. That is you need to go to Instagram settings and select the people from whom you want to hide your story. In this scenario everyone except the special person.

Now let’s check the steps in detail.

Step 1: Open the Instagram app and go to your profile screen. Tap on the three-bar icon at the top. Select Settings from the menu.

Step 2: Go to Privacy followed by Story.

Step 3: Tap on People option under the Hide Story From section.

Step 4: You will be shown your followers. Select everyone individually by tapping on the selection bubble next to their name. Yes, you will have to manually select everyone. Instagram doesn’t provide the select all option yet. Leave the person unselected to whom you want to show the story. Finally, tap on the check icon at the top in the case of Android. On iPhone, tap on Done.

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Is There a Catch

When you use this method, the other person wouldn’t know that you have created the story specially for them as it happens in the method two listed below. However, as you must have noticed, the method is tiresome since you have to manually select all your followers.

Further, if you have a public profile, your non-followers can still have access to your story. That’s because you have hidden your story from your followers only. If that’s an issue, you should make your profile private. For that, go to Instagram Settings > Privacy > Account Privacy. Enable Private Account. We have added a bonus section at the end on how to hide story from non-followers.

Do Others Know When You Hide Your Story

No. Your followers will not be informed when you hide your story from them.

Method 2: Using Close Friends List

Another way to hide your story from all except one is by using a close friends list. Introduced last year, close friends list is a special category of your followers who have exclusive access to your stories. When you add a story to your close friends list, only the people added in that list can view the story. Others do not have access to such stories.

So, in this case, you need to add that one person to your close friends list. And then add the story for your close friends list only. By doing so, the story will be visible to that particular person only.

Here are the steps in detail.

Step 1: On the profile screen of the Instagram app, tap on the three-bar icon at the top. Select Close Friends.

Step 2: Use the search to find the person you want to add in your list. Remove others from the list in case you don’t want them to see your story. Then tap on Done.

Step 3: Go to the home screen of the Instagram app and tap on the camera icon at the top or tap on Your Story.

Step 4: Capture a new photo or select one from gallery. You can modify them as per your preference. Then, tap on the Close Friends button at the bottom. The story will be visible to the selected person only.

Did You Know: Instagram has a dedicated chat app for close friends list? Know more about the Threads app from Instagram.

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What’s the Caveat

Even though this process may seem effortless, there is a catch. The stories added in the close friends list have a green circle around them instead of the usual pinkish-red. So the other person will know that you have added them to this list.

In case the person is already in your close friends list, then it’s the best way since you just have to remove others from this list.

Bonus: How to Hide Story from Someone Who Doesn’t Follow You

As mentioned before, if you have a public profile, your story is visible to people who don’t follow you. To hide it from a specific non-follower, follow these steps:

Step 1: In the Instagram app, open the profile from which you want to hide your story.

Step 2: Tap on the three-dot icon at the top-right corner.

Step 3: Select Hide Your Story from the menu. Confirm by tapping on Hide in the pop-up menu that appears.

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Fingers Crossed

Even though you can achieve the task of hiding stories from everyone by the above two methods, it would have been great if Instagram had a native option without any conditions.

Here's a video on how to hide a story from specific people:

Facebook who owns WhatsApp and Instagram provides the whitelist feature in WhatsApp and Facebook stories both. So, we can still hope for it.

Next up: Instagram provides two interesting ways to avoid people — block and restrict. Know the difference between the two from the next link.

Last updated on 6 Jan, 2020
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Written By

Mehvish is a computer engineer by profession. Her love for Android made her develop the first app for Kashmir. Known as Dial Kashmir, she won the prestigious Nari Shakti award from the President of India for the same. She has been writing about technology for 3+ years and also has her own Wikipedia page.